Weingarten To Cuomo: More School Aid, Please

ICYMI: AFT President Randi Weingarten joined me for a CapTon interview from Ithaca last night, where she was in town to teach several classes at her alma mater, Cornell University.

Weingarten and I discussed Tuesday night’s advance screening of the documentary “Bully” that was co-sponsored in Washington, D.C. by the AFT and National Education Association.

(The film, which is garnering widespread acclaim and generating some serious conversation about a troubling phenomenon, opens in theaters across the nation today).

Weingarten also expressed concern about the massive education aid cuts pushed through by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year, which districts say were not completely ameliorated by the 4 percent aid increase this year – in part due to pressure placed on them by the 2 percent property tax cap.

“Last week I was actually in Rockland County all day, or one day last week, which is the county in which I grew up, the county in which I went to school…I’ve heard stories, both in Ithaca as well as in Rockland County, about the effects of these budget cuts,” Weingarten said.

“We are being asked to do more with less at the very same time when kids need more…We need to be more in terms of after-school activities, in terms of making school safe.”

“At one point or another there is these conflicting priorities, and I would go with, frankly, we need to invest more in schooling for children.”

I asked Weingarten if she has expressed her concerns to Cuomo and impressed upon him that these cuts could be problematic if he tries to take his political act national:

“I have spent many hours in conversations not only with Governor Cuomo but with many other governors throughout this country about the need to invest in education,” Weingarten, ever the pragmatist, replied.

Weingarten, who used to head the UFT, has kept her hand in New York politics. She reportedly helped broker a deal between PEF and the governor after the union rejected its first contract last year, reminding Cuomo that it won’t help him to have a reputation of being anti-union if he does decide to run for president in 2016.